A mold is tooling that is used to produce parts in a molding process such as injection molding, die casting or other similar technologies. For example, in an injection molding process, a mold may include at least two sections that when engaged together form the mold. While plastic injection molds can have at least two movable sections, alternatively they may be comprised of several movable sections. The interior of the mold has one or more cavities. The cavities have a particular design that is the inverse of the part or parts to be manufactured. In the injection molding process, molten plastic is inserted into the cavities and the part or parts are formed in the cavities upon solidification of the plastic. When the formation of the part or parts is complete, the mold is opened to remove the part or parts.
Molds can vary greatly in size and weight depending on several factors. One such factor is the material from which the mold is created. For example, conventional molds may be constructed from steel, aluminum or other materials. Further, the size and weight of the mold will depend on the part or parts that will be manufactured in the molds. For example, molds can be used to produce small plastic components or extremely large items such as boat hulls. For larger items, the size and weight of the mold can range up to 60 tons or more.
At times it may be necessary to rotate a mold for inspection, disassembly, cleaning, repair, etc. Due to the size and weight of a mold, mold rotators (also called “mold tippers”) may be used to rotate the molds. One advantage of rotating the mold is that the rotated orientation of mold may be much more conducive for disassembly of the mold or removal of the mold from the mold rotator. For example, if a mold is comprised of several sections, the orientation of the mold in the rotated position may allow for the mold sections to be separated much more safely and easily than when the mold is the non-rotated orientation.
Some conventional mold rotators may include hydraulic systems and/or motorized systems to rotate a mold. These conventional mold rotators may include gear systems, roller guides, etc. Such mold rotators are expensive, complicated and cumbersome.
Other conventional mold rotators may not have such complicated systems, however, these simpler conventional mold rotators suffer from the drawback that once the mold rotator has been rotated, the mold cannot be easily and safely removed from the mold rotator. In other words, in such a mold rotator, if the mold is inserted into the mold rotator and then rotated from that first position to a second, rotated position, then the mold cannot be easily and safely removed from the mold rotator, because the mold rotator will self-rotate back to the first position upon removal of the mold. Further, the mold cannot be disassembled while in the more conducive rotated position, because if the weight of the partially disassembled mold becomes too light, the mold rotator will self-rotate back to the first position. This inadvertent rotation of the mold rotator from the rotated position back to the first position can be dangerous to the operator of the mold rotator and also hazardous for both the mold rotator and the mold itself. These simple conventional mold rotators lack a stabilizing system to hold the mold rotator stationary in a rotated position so that the mold can be disassembled or removed from the mold rotator while the mold is in the rotated position which is more conducive to removal or disassembly.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an inexpensive and simple mold rotator that will allow a mold to be safely rotated and stabilized in either of a first position or a second, rotated position.